A push for Latino applicants

Penn prides itself on hosting the "largest community of color in the Ivy League," according to interim Admissions Dean Eric Kaplan.

But that figure can be deceiving as Penn simultaneously ranks low when it comes to Latino students.

College junior Angel Jacome, chairman of admissions and recruitment for the Latino Coalition - the umbrella organization for Latino student groups - hopes to reconcile Penn's small Latino population with its reputation for diversity with a series of recruitment initiatives targeted at Latino students.

The Latino population at Penn - which composes 7 percent of the general student body - represents one of the lowest percentages of Latino students in the Ivy League, Jacome said.

The figure is also an underrepresentation of the Latino population in the United States as a whole, which made up 14.8 percent of the national population as of July 1, 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Last December, Jacome contacted the Kite and Key Society, the volunteer organization of the admissions office, about organizing upcoming training sessions to send current Latino Penn students back to their own high schools to recruit other prospective Latinos.

The program will establish an "intimate connection" between Penn and prospective Latino students, said College junior and former chairman of the Latino Coalition Oscar Benitez. "You put a face to the institution."

With a high-school outreach program already in place, adjusting Kite and Key training to fit the needs of the Latino Coalition will be relatively simple, said Engineering junior and Kite and Key President Danny Lustig.

Jacome, who has recruited Latino students from his high school on his own over the past two years, said the training will provide a more formal forum to prepare Penn students to aid both the recruitment of Latino students and eventually an increase in Latino applications and matriculations.

In addition to these trainings, the Latino Coalition is also pushing for the publication of admissions and financial aid information in Spanish.

The admissions office has been exploring the option of printing materials in "languages that are spoken in many first generation homes," Kaplan wrote in an e-mail, which "may ease some of the difficulty of living in a new culture and may assist Penn in reaching its goal of increased access."

La Casa Latina, the Latino student resource center, is also pursuing a variety of recruiting efforts, including connecting Penn students with local Philadelphia Latino youth, said Johnny Irizarry. director of La Casa Latina.

"Even the very bright [students] have so many obstacles and so little support" when it comes to the college application process, said Irizarry. For many Latino students, it's daunting even to consider the possibility of college, not to mention a top-tier school like Penn.

"It's off [their] radar," Irizarry explained.

That is exactly what the Latino Coalition hopes to combat, said Benitez.

"It's making sure Penn gets on the map," he said. "That's the first thing."

The under-representation of Latinos in higher education is not unique to Penn, Irizarry said.

"Latino students are just not applying - and when they are applying, they're dropping out in huge numbers after the first year because their [high] schools are just not preparing them," he explained, also pointing out that financial issues often prevent higher matriculation and retention rates.

Penn has also made a concerted effort to improve on-campus support systems for Latino students, said Benitez, citing La Casa Latina, the Latin American and Latino Studies Program and the Association of Latino Alumni.

But that work isn't done yet. Benitez pointed out the need for more Latino faculty on campus - they currently comprise only 1.8 percent of the total faculty, according to the 2003 Minority Equity Report from the Office of the President.

"It's not just how many students can we bring in," Benitez said. "It's how much can we do to bolster the community from within."

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